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Eating the Elephant

If you have ADHD you don’t have to travel to Asia, Africa or the zoo to find an elephant there’s probably one right there in the room with you.

What does your elephant look like?

It might resemble:

The dishes in the sink.

The pile of paperwork on your desk.

The unfinished art projects.

The dirty clothes spilling out of the hamper.

The last three years of taxes never filed.

The phone calls to be returned.

The birthday or holiday cards never sent.

The mountains of catalogs, newspapers and magazines.

Your elephant may be cute little thing right now but they tend to grow quickly and make themselves quite comfortable while making you feel threatened and uncomfortable. You might even wake up one day to find your elephant has mated and now you have a herd of elephants.

You can try ignoring it, denying it or telling yourself you like living with your elephant but before you know it, it’s going to cause you some big trouble and you’ll realize it’s got to go.

How do you get rid of an elephant? There’s only one way, you have to eat it, and how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Decide where and when you want to take the first bite. Mark it on your calendar. Make a plan start, and then start again the next day and the day after. Don’t worry about finishing. Nobody can predict how long it might take to eat a whole elephant. What we do know is that it can’t be eaten in one sitting. When you’re feeling full from eating your elephant, by all means take a break and digest.

You might want to invite a friend over to help you eat your elephant or invite them to eat their own elephant or join a group of elephant eaters or even hire an expert elephant eater.